Ecclesiastes 2:23

23 cuncti dies eius doloribus et aerumnis pleni sunt nec per noctem mente requiescit et haec non vanitas est

Ecclesiastes 2:23 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief
All his days are full of sorrows, of a variety of them; and all his affairs and transactions of life are attended with grief and trouble; not only the days of old age are evil ones, in which he can take no pleasure; or those times which exceed the common age of man, when he is got to fourscore years or more, and when his strength is labour and sorrow; but even all his days, be they fewer or more, from his youth upward, are all evil and full of trouble, ( Genesis 47:9 ) ( Job 14:1 ) ; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night;
which is appointed for rest and ease; and when laid down on his bed for it, as the word signifies; yet, either through an eager desire of getting wealth, or through anxious and distressing cares for the keeping it when gotten, he cannot sleep quietly and comfortably, his carking cares and anxious thoughts keep him waking; or, if he sleeps, his mind is distressed with dreams and frightful apprehensions of things, so that his sleep is not sweet and refreshing to him. This is also vanity;
or one of the vanities which belong to human life.

Ecclesiastes 2:23 In-Context

21 nam cum alius laboret in sapientia et doctrina et sollicitudine homini otioso quaesita dimittit et hoc ergo vanitas et magnum malum
22 quid enim proderit homini de universo labore suo et adflictione spiritus qua sub sole cruciatus est
23 cuncti dies eius doloribus et aerumnis pleni sunt nec per noctem mente requiescit et haec non vanitas est
24 nonne melius est comedere et bibere et ostendere animae suae bona de laboribus suis et hoc de manu Dei est
25 quis ita vorabit et deliciis affluet ut ego
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.